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For the second time this month a surfer has been attacked by a shark off the California coast. (Published Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012)

A surfer was attacked by a shark Tuesday off the California coast, the second such attack this month.

The attack happened just after noon in northern California's Humboldt County in an area known as Bunker Surf Spot.

Witnesses said several people were surfing off the North Jetty when one man started screaming for help. The injured surfer was able to get himself to shore, but he suffered serious bite wounds to his torso and was bleeding heavily, according to witnesses.

Leopard Sharks Swarm La Jolla

A trained EMT just happened to be on the beach and started treatment immediately. The injured man was then loaded into the back of a pickup truck, and rushed off the beach where he was transferred to a waiting ambulance.

"We could just see that he wad really gashed up and he had four or five serious gashes from his nipple down to his hip and was bleeding out pretty good so we hopped on him right away," an unidentified man said.

Solorio's death marked the first fatal shark attack in the United States this year.

In 2011, there were 75 attacks worldwide, with 29 U.S. attacks, according to annual records kept by the Florida Museum of Natural History's International Shark Attack File. Of all 2011 attacks, three were in California.

The worldwide figure for 2011 included 12 fatal attacks, none of which were in the United States.